To promote their new What-A-Melon flavor, Snapple is holding a contest challenging Americans to beat the current world’s record for largest watermelon. Grow one bigger than 262 pounds and you’ll qualify for a chance to win $25,000 and a year’s supply of What-A-Melon.

That Ma Yan is a 16 year old published author from a northern Chinese village is noteworthy enough. But tack on the fact that Ma Yan was a 12 year old schoolgirl when she wrote her now published diary which has been translated into 9 languages and you’ve got the N.Y. Times taking notice. Ma Yan’s diary was discovered by French reporter Pierre Haski when Ma’s mother gave him her writings while he was visiting their village with a photographer. The girl wrote of her disappointment at having to stay at home to support her family while her brothers attended school. Haski published her story in the newspaper Libération and readers responded with their sympathy in the form of donations. Haski soon returned to visit Ma Yan and her family with money and a book contract. Ma has returned to school and her proceeds have funded the education of other local children. She now has ambitions to attend university and become a journalist herself.

The Barcelona Perfume Museum looks to be a wonderful collection of scent history and modern commercial containers. As the site says in their translated English: it houses “an anthological and selective collection of representative pieces of (perfume) history, of its infinite variety, as well as of the waste of fantasy that the man has lavished, to display their aromatic creations. As if the eyesight sense wanted to pay tribute to the smell sense.” (via Yahoo What’s New)

Here’s a cute little news item about Peter Gabriel and his family. His daughter Anna’s film about the “Growing Up” tour was screened along with a rare solo performance from her dad as a fundraiser ($500/ticket) for the Newport Film Festival in Rhode Island.

Food Network is still running teaser ads without dates for Iron Chef America, but their web site states that the show will run April 23-25.

NBC’s reality show The Restaurant proved successful enough that they are bringing it back for six episodes in April. Contributing to the dramatic appeal, no doubt, is the fact that chef-owner Rocco DiSpirito is being sued by his financial partners for being at fault in the restaurant’s lack of success.

I’m intrigued by these artsy lights from Mathmos which have chip-controlled LEDs. Most are glass, but there are also other materials like plastic and silicon. They are available in the U.S. from ThinkGeek.

The U.S. Forest Service rents out fire lookout towers and guard stations to those who would appreciate a rustic, or downright roughing-it (but with a roof) experience in the wilderness. The towers have few amenities, but the view can’t be beat. Some of the guard station cabins are equipped with toilets and electricity. Getting to the location is sometimes a large part of the fun too.

I have a barely used IBM PS/2 keyboard that I’m sort of saving for a rainy day, which I think means for a possible time in the future when all keyboards will be unbearably mushy or annoying in some fashion. Jonah pulled together a nice set of links on the IBM clacky keyboards (others may say “clicky” but I think “clacky” is closer). One site has helpful information if the keyboard doesn’t work with your modern motherboard.

From Rufo the cat comes the Meow Sound Library. Listen to Rufo’s 9 “word” vocabulary and build your own phrase like “Me Sleep Now.” (thanks salt and Tina!)